Malaysian conglomerate plans investment in various sectors in Cambodia

PNHOM PENH, April 21 (Xinhua)—Malaysian conglomerate The Lion Group has planned to invest in property development, agro-industry, mineral resource, and sewage treatment plant in Cambodia, said the group’s chairman on Thursday.
During a meeting here with Cambodian Prime Minister Hun Sen, Tan Sri William Cheng Heng Jem, the chairman of the Lion Group of Malaysia, said that his company has the desire to invest in shopping mall development, rubber and oil palm plantations, iron ire exploration and steel plant, and sewage treatment plant water treatment in Cambodia, the premier’s spokesman, Eang Sophalleth told reporters after the meeting.
He added that currently the company has been studying for building sewage treatment plant in Phnom Penh and the study will be completed in September this year.
It is not disclosed the sum of investment the company plans for ventures in Cambodia, said Eang Sophalleth.
Meanwhile, Hun Sen expressed his support for the company’s desire to put the investment in Cambodia and recommended the company to consider its investment in building a tyre plant in Cambodia.
He also advised the company to work with Cambodian relevant ministries for any sectors the company is willing to invest in.

The Lion Group was established in the 1930’s and today, has operations in Malaysia, Singapore, Indonesia, China, USA, Mexico, Vietnam and Hong Kong, according to its website.

Its main businesses are steel, motor, tyre, computer, plantation, retail and property development. The Group has also ventured into China with operations in the retail, automotive and tyre businesses.

The Group has five companies listed on Bursa Malaysia with another two each in Indonesia and Singapore; and one in Hong Kong.

It has an annual group turnover of approximately RM 17.3 billion (4.9 billion U.S. dollars) and provides employment for about 23,500 people, it added. (Written by Nguon Sovan)

Cambodia sees 88 pct rise in cassava exports in Q1: gov’t report

PHNOM PENH, April 20 (Xinhua)—Cambodia has seen sharp rise in cassava exports in the first quarter of this year, compared with the same period last year, according to the statistics from the Camcontrol Department, which is the government’s Import-Export Inspection Agent, on Wednesday.

The data showed that from January to March this year, the country had exported 204,618 tonnes of cassava, represented 88 percent rise from 108,987 tonnes in the same period last year.

More demands of cassava from Thailand and Vietnam have driven up the exports and prices are also better this year, said a prominent cassava broker on Wednesday.

A tone of dry chip of cassava cost 200 U.S. dollars and fresh cassava cost 80 U.S. dollars now, rose from about 167 U.S. dollars and 60 U.S. dollars respectively at this time last year, said Te Haing, president of Chak Puok Co, which brokers cassava for factories in Thailand and Vietnam.

“Cassava has good market now,” he said. “More farmers have abandoned corn farming for cassava.”

According to the report from the ministry of agriculture, the country grew 194,000 hectares of cassava crop and yielded 3.78 million tonnes in 2010-2011 harvest season. (Written by Nguon Sovan)

Foreign donors, Cambodian officials meet over aid dialogue

 PHNOM PENH, April 20, 2011 -- Cambodian government officials, representatives of foreign development partners and  civil society met here on Wednesday to revise the development progress Cambodia has made last year under the foreign aid pledged by those donor countries and to hear Cambodia’s needs for 2011.
  Speaking at the opening ceremony of the 18th meeting of the Government-Development Partner Coordination Committee on  Wednesday, Cambodian Deputy Prime Minister Keat Chhon, minister of finance, said that most of the activities for 2010’s  social and economic development have been implemented and achieved the goals despite some challenges in resource constraints, complexity of issues and capacity levels.
  “Cambodia is on the right track to develop its economy,” he said. “It expected to see more than six percent growth in 2011  with almost all sectors contributing to the growth and private sector will play a leading role in delivering these benefits.”
  The World Bank Country Manager, Qimiao Fan, who is the lead development partner facilitator in the meeting, said:     “Development partners are pleased to note that the majority of the Technical Working Groups are on track to achieve their Joint  Monitoring Indicator (JMI) targets and the overall good performance of the JMIs.”
  Meanwhile, Qimiao Fan stressed most of his remarks on forced evictions with unfair compensations.
  Cambodia has the potential to maintain sustainable, long-term growth at 7-8 percent a year and the government has an  opportunity to shape the future and to make the future of inclusive and sustainable growth a reality by following its comparative  advantages, he said.
  “One of Cambodia’s comparative advantages is its abundant land and land, as we all recognize, is also one of the most  challenging issues in Cambodia,” he said. “With rapid urbanization, the resumption of fast economic growth and the increasing  interest from investors in large-scale commercial farming, land issue will become only more challenging.”
  “Good land planning, land tenure security and a fair and transparent framework for resettlement are critical if Cambodia is to  benefit from this comparative advantage,” he added.
  He added that the development partners believed that it is in Cambodia’s best interests to establish national policies which  ensure that resettlements follow due legal processes and provide fair compensation and support to enable residents to be resettled  such a way that does not cause additional harm and indeed helps to improve their living conditions.
  “Development partner stand ready to assist Cambodia in addressing this and other challenging issues facing the country’s  development and we look forward to a positive response from the government in tackling these challenges,” he added.
  Donors pledged 1.1 billion U.S. dollars in 2010 for Cambodia’s social and economic development, it is unknown how much the  aid pledge will be this year from those donors to Cambodia.
  The government has sought financial support from donors to ensure sustainable financing and effective implementation of the National Social protection Strategy for the Poor and Vulnerable (2011-2015), which passed by the government last month.

Cambodia to reduce HIV/AIDS infection rate from mother to child to 5 pct by 2015

PHNOM PENH, April 19 (Xinhua)—Cambodia’s Ministry of Health set the target to reduce HIV/AIDs infection rate from mothers to children from the current 8 percent to 5 percent by 2015 and as low as 2 percent by 2020, said a senior health official on Tuesday.

Mean Chhivun, the director-general of Cambodia's National Centre for HIV/AIDS, Dermatology and Sexually Transmitted Infections (STIs), said that the target was set following the increasing rate of pregnant women to have their blood tested for the virus in the last three years from 30 percent to more than 80 percent by 2010.

He added that last year, 170,000 pregnant women had their blood tested for HIV/AIDS and it found that 0.3 percent, or 510 women of them have HIV/AIDS.

“The prevalence rate of pregnant women contracting with HIV/AIDS is low,” he said.

“Thus, with the participations from pregnant women themselves and the efforts by the ministry of health with financial and technical supports from donors, I believe that Cambodia could achieve its target,” he said.

He added that important measures to achieve the target included the increase of blood test, the education of pregnant women with HIV/AIDs to prevent themselves from infecting other dermatology and Sexually Transmitted Infections and strengthening health officials’ ability to take care them in pre-birth and post-birth phases.

Currently, the country has 58,200 people living with HIV/AIDS, of them, 42,799 people have received antiretroviral drugs. (Written by Nguon Sovan)

China Radio International to open office in Phnom Penh

PHNOM PENH, April 19 (Xinhua)—China Radio International (CRI) is slated to open its representative office here sometimes this year, aiming at promoting closer relations and friendships between the people of China and Cambodia, said a CRI official on Tuesday.

During a meeting with Cambodian Minister of Information Khieu Kanharith, the visiting

Alexia Xu, deputy director of the CRI’s Broadcasting Department, said that her visit to Cambodia was to learn about the procedures and requirements in Cambodia toward the establishment of the ICR’s office in Phnom Penh.

Since December 2008, CRI has a Cambodia-China Friendship Radio in Phnom Penh and broadcast from Beijing, but it has no office here yet.

CRI has also planned to set up a Cambodia-China Friendship radio station with 10 kilowatt broadcasting power in Siem Reap province soon.

Meanwhile, the minister expressed his full support for the office set-up here and pledged to facilitate this task.

“When the installation of the radio station in Siem Reap comes online, including the existing Cambodia-China radio in Phnom Penh, the CRI will cover the broadcast of about 85 percent of Cambodia,” said Kieu Kanharith.  

CRI's programs include news, current affairs, and features on politics, the economy, culture, science and technology. (Written by Nguon Sovan)

Thai rice millers, exporters explore opportunity in Cambodia amid border row

PHNOM PENH, March 31 (Xinhua)--A large group of thirty Thai rice millers and exporters met with Cambodian trades and investment officials here on Thursday in order to explore business opportunity amid ongoing border conflict between the two countries since the deadly clashes on Feb. 4-7 near the 11^th century Preah Vihear temple.

The delegation led by Korbsook Iamsuri, president of the Thai Rice Exporters Association. 

During a presentation to the delegation on Thursday, Cham Prasidh, Cambodian Minister of Commerce and vice chairman of the Council for the Development of Cambodia, said that the country produced 8.25 million tonnes of rice paddy for 2011. Of this figure, the country has 3.9 million tonnes of rice paddies, or 2.5 million tonnes of milled rice left over for exports this year.

So far, the country has 50,978 small rice mills and 1,789 medium and large scale mills.

“Now, our issue is the lack of hi-tech mills to process this rice paddy for exports,” he said. “We need investors in the sophisticated rice mills.”

Investment in rice mills in Cambodia, investors will take advantages of duty-frees offered by many countries in the world.

“It’s good for you all to do trades with Cambodia because if you set up rice mills here, the exportation of the processed rice to Canada, Australia, European countries…will be free-of-duty and no quota limitation,” he said.

Korbsook Iamsuri said that the group has really impressed with the chance to invest in rice mills in Cambodia as its geographical location is close to Thailand.

“We see that Cambodia has a huge potential in rice sector and there are a lot of rooms to invest in this sector,” she said. “It maybe now the best time for us to invest in Cambodia—we will take it into consideration when returning to Thailand.”

Chookiat Ophaswongse, honorary president of Thai Rice Exporters Association, recognized that Cambodia is really full of potential in rice sector, “but the lack of infrastructure, high cost of logistics, and expensive cost of electricity are still the factors discouraging investors to Cambodia.”

Cambodia needs 350 million U.S. dollars to boost rice paddy production and rice exports to hit one million tonnes a year from 2015, Hang Chuon Naron, secretary of state for the finance ministry, said Wednesday in the seminar on environment, agriculture and development.

Of this amount, 150 million U.S. dollars for building hi-tech post-harvest technology and other 200 million U.S. dollars for purchasing rice paddy for processing.

The visit of the Thai delegation was made amid the military confrontation between the two nations over the border dispute near Preah Vihear temple.

“Thai businessmen do business, not politics,” said Jiranan Wongmongkol, director of the Thai embassy’s Foreign Trade Promotion Office in Phnom Penh.

 “If they observe good investment opportunity in Cambodia, they will grasp the chance regardless of political or border conflict,” she added.

Thai Rice Exporters Association was founded in 1918; so far it has 199 exporter-members.

Thailand is the world’s largest rice exporter, last year it had exported 9.3 million tones. (Written by Nguon Sovan)

Cambodia’s inflation to hit 6.5 pct in 2011: IMF

PHNOM PENH, April 12 (Xinhua)—The International Monetary Fund (IMF) forecast the inflation rate in Cambodia for 2011 could stand at 6.5 percent, rose more than double from 3.1 percent last year, according to the Fund’s World Economic Outlook 2011 on Tuesday.

The Fund’s forecast is the highest of all predictors. The World Bank forecast the country’s inflation rate at 5 percent, the Asian Development Bank at 5.5 percent and the government of Cambodia at below 5 percent.  

Cambodian economists have agreed with the forecast by the IMF.

“It could be reached that level as now we have observed that petroleum and food prices in Cambodia have been skyrocketing,” Kang Chandararot, president of Cambodia Institute for Development Study, said Tuesday. “Moreover, the greenback has been depreciating against riel currency.”

“However, the rate is still low and manageable,” he said.

Petroleum prices in Cambodia have increased by 6 percent since the start of the year. Now a liter of Gold gasoline goes for 1.33 U.S. dollars, up from 1.25 U.S. dollars in January, while the U.S. dollar currency has depreciated about 2 percent to 3,982 riels a U.S. dollar now from 4,060 riels a U.S. dollar earlier this year.

The IMF predicts that Cambodia’s gross domestic growth (GDP) in 2011 is 6.5 percent—the same rate of the predictions by the World Bank and the Asian Development Bank, and at a similar rate forecast by the government of Cambodia at between 6-7 percent. (Written by Nguon Sovan)